TY - JOUR
T1 - Pregnant Teens in Foster Care
T2 - Concepts, Issues, and Challenges in Conducting Research on Vulnerable Populations
AU - Lieberman, Lisa D.
AU - Bryant, Linda L.
AU - Boyce, Keneca
AU - Beresford, Patricia
N1 - Funding Information:
Recognizing that pregnant teens in foster care are at greater risk than other pregnant teens, Inwood House, a contract agency of the NYC foster care system, sought and received funding for a demonstration project that would directly address and gather data about this particular population. The data were intended to inform the agency’s own practice, but also to provide insight that would aid the NYC foster care system in serving this special population. The Teen Family Life (TFL) project, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs (OAPP) took place during the same period that ACS was moving away from congregate care for pregnant teens. The TFL demonstration project offered specialized services to pregnant teens in a residential foster care setting within the NYC child welfare system, and compared them to a standard set of services offered at a similar contract agency. The paths of these separate initiatives converged in 2006, when Inwood House contributed information about the population of pregnant teens in its care, about services and implementation and about the limitations of research in this area, to the ACS policy discussions. This article discusses the case study, the lessons learned and proposes approaches which can improve the evidence for what works to meet the needs of pregnant and parenting teens in the child welfare system.
PY - 2014/3
Y1 - 2014/3
N2 - Teens in foster care give birth at over twice the rate of other teens. Unique challenges exist for these vulnerable teens and babies, yet research on such populations, particularly within the systems that serve them, is limited. A demonstration project at Inwood House, a residential foster care agency in New York City, from 2000 to 2005, at the same time that the Administration for Children's Services was exploring policy and practice changes for this population, is described. Research design and implementation issues, descriptive data, and experiences provide lessons for improving the evidence base to meet the needs of pregnant teens in care.
AB - Teens in foster care give birth at over twice the rate of other teens. Unique challenges exist for these vulnerable teens and babies, yet research on such populations, particularly within the systems that serve them, is limited. A demonstration project at Inwood House, a residential foster care agency in New York City, from 2000 to 2005, at the same time that the Administration for Children's Services was exploring policy and practice changes for this population, is described. Research design and implementation issues, descriptive data, and experiences provide lessons for improving the evidence base to meet the needs of pregnant teens in care.
KW - child welfare
KW - foster care
KW - organizations/systems
KW - pregnant teens
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84900005670&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84900005670&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/15548732.2014.895793
DO - 10.1080/15548732.2014.895793
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84900005670
SN - 1554-8732
VL - 8
SP - 143
EP - 163
JO - Journal of Public Child Welfare
JF - Journal of Public Child Welfare
IS - 2
ER -